Relapse and Risk Behavior among Drug Addicts in Peshawar*

Prof. Dr. Amir Zada Asad & Dr. Zahid Javed

Abstract
Drug addiction is a big problem in Pakistan with no or little attention being paid to its
solution on the state level. This is a cross-sectional descriptive study to find out the
prevalence of communicable diseases among injecting drug-users in Peshawar. The
working population and youth in particular are victims of this disease with no solution in
sight in the near future. The victims are mostly illiterate, employed abusers with heroin as
their choice drug. Cannabis smoking has proved to be the gateway to heroin addiction.
Injecting the drug through the intravenous route is on the rise with dire consequences of
HCV, HBS and HIV transmission. The number of addicts and the available detoxification
facilities are not commensurate and all the efforts seem to be wasteful of national resources.
Hence discernable efforts are needed to tackle the problem.

Keywords: Drug addiction, Heroin addiction, Injecting drug users, detoxification and relapse, HIV, HCVand HBS infection, needle sharing.